First Impressions
by amyduckpond
Summary: A modernized/st. berry take on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. When Rachel Berry first meets Jesse St. James at a local charity ball, she finds him to be arrogant and rude, but she soon learns that people aren't always what they seem.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **I know I should probably work on my other fics before starting a new one but I just love Pride and Prejudice and I thought it'd be cool to modernize it and make it St. Berry while we're at it. If you've read the book and want me to specify which characters are supposed to be which just shoot me a message either on here or tumblr. (Also some stuff is AU so that it fits with pride and prejudice and some stuff is going to be different from pride and prejudice so some of the pairings fit correctly). The girls dresses are posted on a tumblr I made for random stuff that's fic related on a tumblr that's the same url as this account name (timewellwasted97).

Sorry I know, incredibly long AN. Anyway I hope you all enjoy my rendition of the famous novel by Jane Austen. (and I hope I did it justice!)

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Rachel stared into the mirror in front of her, wondering why on earth she let Quinn talk her into getting the white dress she was now wearing. It was strapless and shorter than most dresses she wore, the ivory color of her dress brought out the light tan she had from lounging around the pool in her friends back yard. Summer was coming to an end and McKinley was holding its annual charity ball.

In order to get into the prestigious affair, one's family had to come from money, and loads of it. Rachel however, being one of the best known singers in McKinley was invited to be a guest performer at it; not to mention she had been invited by Quinn as well.

Her doorbell rang out through the house and she assumed it was her friend coming to pick her up. Quinn's dress was black and short in the front, similar to Rachel's, except the back continued down to her ankles. She smiled brightly at her friend, "hey is the limo here?"

Quinn nodded and grabbed her friend's hand leading her to the limo that would be taking them to the ball. As both of them sat down in the backseat, the blonde immediately began filling her in on everything.

"You are _never _going to guess who's going to be at the party tonight." Based on the excitement in Quinn's voice, Rachel already had her assumptions, but she chose to let her friend tell her.

"Noah. Puckerman." Quinn let out a squeal before continuing, "not only is he head quarterback at Carmel, but his family is loaded _and _everyone says he's the coolest guy they know."

Rachel smiled, "planning the wedding already, are we?" The blonde shoved her friend playfully and laughed, "well mom is a wedding planner, so it'd be lovely."

Both girls laughed and Rachel shrugged, "well as long as I'm your maid of honor, I'll be happy to attend." Quinn nodded, "oh don't worry, you will be. And maybe he he'll have a cute friend to be his best man." she added with a wink.

The other girl raised an eyebrow, "you know I'm beginning to think you're actually planning this."

She shrugged, "daddy says it's never too early to plan ahead." The limo then stopped and the door opened up for both girls to step out.

As soon as she stepped into the ball room, Rachel's breath almost stopped. The place was beyond beautiful; black and white banners clung to the ceiling; bright red roses were in vases on every table; everyone's dresses were black or white, like Rachel and Quinn's. Everything was simply stunning.

She made her way to the stage quickly to perform a mic check before launching into her songs while Quinn went to talk to friends of her parents, not to mention look around for a certain quarterback that would be attending later tonight. As she began with the countdown from ten, Rachel paused along with everyone else in the room, or at least it seemed like everyone. Maybe since all her attention was on the two people that suddenly entered it only seemed that everyone else's was also.

From Quinn's constant facebook stalking Rachel could tell one of them was Noah Puckerman, but she couldn't quite place the other one. He was by far the most attractive man she'd ever seen, and although most of the girls attentions were on Puck, she couldn't take her eyes of the other man.

Realizing that she had been staring, Rachel quickly cleared her thoughts of the man she wished to know the name of; she quickly introduced herself, thanked the crowd for coming, and went straight into song. She had been directed to sing a few slow songs, and then the rest of her evening was free since they had hired entertainment other than her. After finishing her songs, she thanked the crowd for their attention and made her way to find Quinn.

Suddenly a wave of blonde flashed in front of her face and Rachel knew that Quinn had found her first and was clearly excited, "Rachel! Rachel! We danced the _entire _time!" she rolled her eyes, "well except for one time when this tramp practically threw herself at him, but other than that!" she let out a sigh of content, "oh Rach, he's so charming. I'm seriously considering the whole marriage thing."

Rachel giggled, "well I'm glad you had fun, minus the tramp. Who was that guy with him?"

Quinn's head perked up hearing her friends question, "Why? Do you like him? Oh you two have to meet! Hold on, let me get Puck to introduce you." The brunette tried to call out to her friend and make her stop but she was already too far gone.

In a matter of minutes Quinn returned with her arm linked with Noah's and the mystery man walking quietly next to them. She smiled, "Puck, this is my best friend Rachel. Rachel, this is Puck." He extended his hand to Rachel, who took it with a smile. Puck looked back at his friend, "Hey and uh this is Jesse, Jesse this is Rachel."

She smiled to the man whose name she now knew to be Jesse, but was only returned with a plastered on smile that was obviously fake. Rachel wasn't sure what she had done to make him upset, but decided to shrug off the matter. It was a shame, too. Rachel had heard about Jesse being the lead singer for Vocal Adrenaline and figured they'd get along nicely.

After an awkward moment of silence passed, Rachel and Quinn excused themselves to get something to drink, although they were still in earshot of the two men near them. The blonde motioned to stay silent so they could eavesdrop on the two men they had just spoken to.

"_Dude what the hell is wrong with you? Rachel's hot. I mean not Quinn hot, but I'd tap that."_

"_Puckerman you'd tap just about everyone in here except the dudes."_

"_Hey man I have standards." _

The statement caused Jesse to chuckle, but Puck continued anyway.

"_Seriously you're gonna die alone if you don't start making a move on __someone__."_

"_Look you know I only dance when I know my partner is as skilled as I am. Based on her mediocre singing I highly doubt her dancing is past ordinary either." _

Admittedly, the comment hurt Rachel. She honestly didn't think she was that bad, and it certainly wasn't his place to judge her, or maybe it was… he was the lead for one of the top show choirs in the nation. She threw on her usual show face and immediately laughed the comment off when she saw Quinn giving her sympathetic eyes.

"Why don't you go and dance with your prince charming? Maybe if I'm lucky St. James over there will get past his idiotic prejudice." She added a laugh to make sure Quinn knew she couldn't care less what Jesse thought, even though a part of her did.

She eyed Jesse inconspicuously; he wasn't dancing with anyone, and based on his previous statement she was finding his attitude to be annoying. Yes, Rachel knew she could be a bit conceited at times, but she would never deny someone was talented when they obviously were. Maybe she wasn't as good as some of the robots in Vocal Adrenaline, but she knew she had talent. She made a note to tell Kurt about Jesse and see if he knew anything about him. So many people around here knew everything about everyone. It got a little freaky at times but she had grown to accept it.

Rachel met Quinn at the Limo as soon as the ball was over so they could go home since she was staying at Quinn's that night. She was happy and excited to hear all about her friend's new infatuation, but most importantly forget all about Jesse and his conceited personality.


	2. Chapter 2

Rachel's mary janes clicked on the tile floor as she walked down the newly cleaned halls of McKinley. The school year had finally begun and, needless to say, not many people were thrilled. Bleak faces and droned out conversations drifted through the halls; however, Rachel had never minded school that much. Learning new things came easy to her, and glee club usually brought a smile to her face. The only thing she could live without were the slushies, but by now just bringing an extra pair of clothes sufficed.

As she searched her locker for the books she needed for her next class, Kurt walked up beside her. "I want every last glorious detail of the ball that you can give me," he spoke immediately; "I heard Puckerman and Fabray shared a few dances." The Hummels not having the money to be able to attend left Kurt without a chance to go, however that would never stop the boy from learning everything that happened at it.

"You'd be correct," Rachel replied with a coy smile. They began walking down the hall, their enlightened faces at this year's new gossip creating a total contrast to the bored ones on the faces of the other students cluttering the hallway.

"Quinn and Noah danced the entire time I sang, well apparently some girl cut in for one dance, but since Quinn had his attention the rest of the time I'm assuming things went well for them," she answered the question more directly, feeling bad that she had gotten to go while he hadn't.

"I also heard Mr. Quartback had a friend," the unspoken question was obvious, but it was still a bit of a touchy subject for Rachel, even though she acted like it wasn't.

She let out an annoyed sigh thinking of Jesse St. James, "yeah, he brought a friend." That was really as far as she wished to go with him, but Kurt, of course, had to know more. "Well was he hot? I'm assuming so if my sources are correct."

"Did your sources also tell you he's a conceited, arrogant, dick?" She asked, the words slipping before she even took a moment to ponder them.

"I think my sources neglected to mention that," he answered.

They entered the class they had together, taking one of the desks designed for two people in the back of the classroom; even though English was one of her favorite classes, Rachel knew Kurt would want to gossip for most of the time, and she felt like she owed him that much at least.

"So what'd he do to earn himself that kind of title from you?" Kurt asked.

"Nothing," she rolled her eyes and continued, "he just called my singing mediocre and assumed my dancing was as well, so he refused to dance with me."

"Did he flat out say no to your face?" her friend asked shocked.

"Kurt Hummel, do I need to remind you you're in class?" Their teacher called out from the front of the room. His face turned a light shade of pink as he quickly shook his head, "No ma'am, sorry."

Right as their teacher turned back to the bored, his attention was immediately back on Rachel, "so did you ask him to dance and he just said no or what?"

"No it didn't happen like that; it wasn't to my face. Noah told him he should dance with me and that's when he called my singing mediocre, etcetera, etcetera," Rachel answered.

"Have you seen him since?"

"No," she answered firmly, "and I don't intend to." Digressing the conversation from herself, Rachel focused the attention back to Quinn and Puck, "however, Noah and Quinn have been on a few dates since, and I also had the 'pleasure' of meeting Santana Lopez, one of Noah's good friends from Carmel."

"I've heard of her; head cheerleader/bitch at Carmel, right?" He asked knowingly.

"That's the one. Quinn says that she's nice, but I think it's just an act since her and Noah are such good friends and all."

"Well is she nice to you?"

"Yes," Rachel shook her head; confusion clouding her brain about her own answer, "well not really. Everything's back-handed with her. I know she doesn't like me, but she's nice around Quinn. I still have no idea why she doesn't like me, though."

"Maybe she heard you singing at the ball and is jealous," Kurt answered with a shrug.

"I don't think jealousy is in Santana Lopez's dictionary," she replied with a laugh, "though I guess you could be right. Or she could just want me out of the picture since I don't really fit in with her, Quinn, and Noah."

"You know Quinn would kill you if she heard you talking like that."

"I know," Rachel sighed, "she doesn't realize she's the prettiest girl in Lima, and definitely doesn't realize she's best friends with one of the least."

"Now _I_ might just kill you for talking like that; even though you act like St. James didn't get to you, I know he did," Kurt said looking at her seriously, "you were right though, he is a conceited dick who is not worth the time of Rachel Berry."

She laughed and thanked him, both teens turning their attention back to the board, hoping they didn't allow themselves to get too far behind. About twenty minutes later as their teacher began finishing up their lecture, Rachel groaned remembering what she was having to do this weekend.

"What?" Kurt asked amused.

"I just remembered Quinn wants to hang out this weekend."

"What's so bad about handing out with-?"

"With Noah, and Santana, and most likely Jesse."

"Can't you just politely cancel?"

She shook her head, "Quinn would absolutely kill me; she's wanting to take things slow with him, since her other relationships haven't worked out well so far, and in order to do that almost every time they hang out has to be a group thing, hence how I met Santana a few days ago."

"Ooooh," Kurt nodded, "well don't forget to tell your other best friend how things go.  
You know in like, ninety-nine percent of all romantic comedies the main couple hates each other at first?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, "shut up. Jesse St. James and I never becoming a romantic comedy."

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**AN: I have no idea why out of all my stories, this is the one I update...I guess I just randomly got inspired. Anyway I hope you all enjoy chapter two and hopefully the next chapters will come out much quicker! **


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